Flying Saucers: Made in the USA

It’s not all Donald Keyhoe’s fault. In late 1949 “The Flying Saucers are Real” was published in True magazine, Jan. 1950, causing the topic of UFOs to be taken more seriously. There was no proof that the sightings and reports of these UFOs represented physical objects. With all the talk, many people came to believe in saucers, but couldn’t agree what they were, or where they came from. The notion that saucers came from space was catching on, but most people believed that if saucers were real, they were made on earth – probably by the USA. 

David Lawrence, publisher of U.S. News & World Report

April 3, 1950 – Conservative newsman David Lawrence shocked readers by publishing, “Flying Saucers: The Real Story,” in U.S. News & World Report, April 7, 1950. He reported that saucers were not only real, but U.S. military aircraft: “Jet-propelled disks can outfly other planes... about the only big secret left is who makes them. Evidence points to Navy experiments.”

“Flying Saucers: The Real Story,” U.S. News and World Report, April 7, 1950

The notion gained found support. Henry J. Taylor was a major newspaper and radio commentator, and (without referencing Lawrence’s article) he also made the amazing announcement that flying saucers are real - and were US military secret projects.

The editorial, “Flying Saucers,” in The Fort Collins Coloradoan, April 11, 1950, discussed Lawrence’s article and talked about distrust, “Blanket Denials… from Washington are common… The fact that the President or one of his lieutenants says something isn't so doesn't mean a thing any more.”

Showing more trust in the government was My Weekly Reader, the magazine for school children. It was an unlikely source for UFO disclosures, but columnist Tom Trott proclaimed in the issue for Sept. 18, 1950:

"I am now allowed to tell you that some flying saucers are real. They belong to our Air Force. They will someday be a big help to our country."

When confronted about the story, the editor, Eleanor M. Johnson said, the motive was “to overcome a deluge of humbuggery afloat in our land which is calculated to exploit superstition and ignorance.” The goal was to reduce “widespread hysteria” and fear among children about “tiny, big-headed men from Venus.”

People Today magazine, Sept. 10, 1952, said, “Flying Saucers are Real – Remember the A-Bomb.” The key source for the article was Dr. Lincoln LaPaz, head of the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico. “Sightings here and in Scandinavia lead me to believe that fireballs and the so-called saucers may be guided missiles – some possibly ours, some possibly Russian. In any case, they are Earth-born.”

Air Force Saucers

In the United Press article by Charles Corddry in The Nashville Banner, Oct. 26, 1955, Air Force Secretary Donald A. Quarles was quoted on new aircraft in development that "will be a new phenomenon in our skies and under certain conditions could give the illusion of the so-called flying saucer." He was referring to the vertical take-off and landing jets and the disc-shaped jet being developed by Avro of Canada, but the minds of some readers jumped to the conclusion that this was an Air Force cover story. One camp thought this was admission the saucers were military all along, another was that it was to distract from the real, alien flying saucers.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Oct 26, 1955, AP

Russian Saucers

On Oct. 2, 1957, news agencies INS and UP reported that Professor S. Zonshtein said that Russia had a disc-shaped plane that could “rise and descend vertically.”

Avro Again

Brigadier General Frank H. Britton, Director of Developments, Office of Chief of Research and Developments, U.S. Army. Gave testimony on the Avro project before the House of Representatives, Committee on Science and Astronautics, Washington, DC, April 13, 1959.

The Associated Press reported on the testimony, stating:

“The secrecy curtain was withdrawn slightly Thursday night from a hush-hush project which the Army hopes will give the United States its version of the flying saucer. Heavily censored testimony made public by the House Space Committee confirmed that the revolutionary new aircraft will resemble a saucer.”

Meanwhile, the US Army was using flying saucers as bait to entice soldiers to reenlist. The image below was used both as a poster and in print ads.

Space Age

Since 1950, the public had been told flying saucers were real, and that they might be made in the USA. In 1960, a flying saucer was curiously among the rockets and satellites depicted in the poster by Richard Amundsen, “Space Age” from Educational Posters Co.

The idea was reinforced when New York Mirror magazine, April 28, 1963 used illustration for the article, “U.S. Space Hardware - Today and Tomorrow.”

Having a flying saucer depicted among other spacecraft projects blurred the line between fact and fantasy. But it wasn’t just any saucer, it was drawn from the cover of Keyhoe’s 1950 book.

Mixed Messages

Since 1947 the  Air Force had denied flying saucers were real. They muddied the waters in 1955 by saying they were building saucer-like craft. That encouraged the belief in physical flying saucers from earth – or elsewhere. The original Avro project failed, but it eventually did produce a marginal flying saucer for the U.S. Army, the Avrocar, which was a disc-shaped hovercraft. Two vehicles were built and tested, then the project was cancelled in 1969. So was Project Blue Book. The U.S. government just wanted to forget the whole saucer business for good.

. . .

See our previous articles on the many Man-Made Flying Saucers.

For more on the Avro saucer story, see the section, “The US Preparations for Man-made Saucer” of UFO Study Programs and US Military Technology.

Flying Saucers: The Small Sporty Models

 

Human beings have always been fascinated with flight, but in 1947, flying saucers gave us something new to think about. UFOs have inspired us to imagine and invent.

Who was the first inventor to attempt to build and fly their own saucer? The Weekly Town Talk, July 19, 1947, featured a photo of Jimmy Webb of Little Rock, Arkansas, and the homemade “Flying Saucer,” he entered in a local model airplane competition.

In 1950, Charles Hoberg of Chicago built a small “jet-powered” saucer “after studying reports of the space ships.”

Sunday News, March 26, 1950

In Sept. 1950, a warning was issued that Detroit, the Plymouth Motor Corporation’s International Model Plane Contest would feature flying saucers, and that they might cause alarm and be reported to authorities by the public.

Mansfield Advertiser Sept. 6, 1950

Plymouth Press release

“Pilot your own Flying Saucer” was the title of an article in Boy’s Life Jan. 1953, that instructed readers how to construct an unpowered flying saucer out of balsa wood.

Boy’s Life Jan. 1953

Boy Scout Ray White built such a saucer and demonstrated it on television for NBC’s Today Show.

Boy’s Life Nov. 1953

The above are just a few examples of the early attempts to copy flying saucers on a small scale, but in the 1960s, a company set out to mass produce them.

 

Cox’s Sky Saucer

The Star-News, (Chula Vista, CA) June 23, 1966

“Would you believe saucer for $9.98? Better yet, would you BUY a flying saucer for $9.98?  That's the million-dollar question as far as C. R. Stuard is concerned… Stuard is the co-owner and marketer of the "X-1 Sky Saucer," a flying saucer toy invented recently by a Solar engineer, [currently in] a test-market] in the Chula Vista Penney store. …

“Idea for the toy came from [Leonard] Mueller’s invention of a flying saucer-type crop duster. | “But it would have cost us $250,000 to produce our first duster,” says Stuard, “so we put our heads together and decided to come out with a model of the crop duster and sell it as a toy ‘flying saucer. We attached a gasoline engine to the saucer… and our model and it took off and flew…’

Does Stuard believe in real-life flying saucers? Like from Mars? “Yes, frankly, I do,” he says. “I have a very good friend who says he saw one. I believe him. He’s not the sort of person who’d make something like this up. Also, too many of the saucer sightings are unexplained. You know, expert scientists have told us that the obvious ‘best design’ for space vehicles of the future is the saucer. It’s shaped perfectly for space travel. If this is true, then maybe it figures that men from other planets would use saucers to investigate things on and about earth.”

 

The saucer’s package stated:

"Your X-1 sky saucer is practically indestructible and made of rugged polyethylene plastic to withstand the shock of Earth reentry...it can take it and fly again immediately!"

“Our X-1 Sky Saucer is powered by world famous special 18,000 RPM Cox .049 engine. Over 16" in diameter. Reaches heights of 300 feet & more.”

The X-1 was marketed in the 1970s as the “Star Cruiser UFO,” but a version was still on sale into the 1990s, and a similar “Nomad” saucer was produced in 1998.

 

Back to the Garage

Mass produced copies like the Cox Sky Saucer have their place, but there’s nothing like the efforts of the early saucer inventors. They took inspiration from flying saucers, thought for themselves, and got to work. Ufology might benefit from getting back to basics, and that’s a good model to follow.

Engineering Flying Saucers

 

There were circular winged aircraft before the sighting of flying saucers in 1947. At least two of them were later the cause of some confusion. 

Jonathan E. Caldwell invented the Roto-Plane around 1937, but after the crash of a test flight he abandoned the project. Later the prototypes were found in a barn and mistaken for flying saucers.

In 1942, Charles H. Zimmerman built a single-wing circular airfoil, the Chance Vought V-173, nicknamed the Flying Flapjack (or Pancake). This propeller driven disk-shaped plane was tested in 190 flights up until March 1947. 

The Los Angeles Times, July 6, 1947

Daily News, July 5, 1947

After the reports from Kenneth Arnold and others of disc-shaped unidentified flying objects, many inventors were inspired, challenged to build their own flying saucers. Here’s some notable examples from our files. 

Engineering Flying Saucers: The First Ten Years

Dr. Kay’s Revolutionary Disc

Dr. Eugene W. Kay was a Russian-born inventor and aeronautical engineer who lived in Glendale, California. He and a partner applied for a helicopter patent in 1946. https://patents.google.com/patent/US2521012A/en?inventor=Eugene+W+Kay 

Saturday Night Uforia included Dr. Kay’s press coverage extensively in the 2015 article, Saucer Summer Reading Fest (part five), but below are some of the highlights.

https://www.saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/saucsum5.html

A nationally syndicated photo in January 1950 debuted Dr. Kay’s invention:

“… a flying saucer that he built himself and that he believes will revolutionize aviation. His 41-inch, 20- pound test model rises from the ground and spins in a 36-foot circle... U.S. Air Force officials recently watched a test flight of Dr. Kay's revolutionary disk.”

The Orlando Sentinel Jan. 16, 1950 

More press followed. Parade magazine, April 9, 1950, ran a pictorial feature on his invention and reported: “The Kay ‘saucer’ is actually a 41-inch circular aluminum disk with eight slotted vanes like fan blades. A midget motor spins the vanes and also powers a propeller for forward motion.”

Then in May, Flying magazine and Popular Mechanics.

Flying magazine, May 1950 

Popular Mechanics, May 1950 

That was the end of the press for the invention, partly due to the research being cut short. Dr. Kay died on Oct. 8, 1951, at the age of 66. The last we could find of Dr. Kay’s saucer was in Billboard magazine, Dec. 5, 1953. William Shilling was a booker in New York supplying talent and exhibits (like Hitler’s limousine) for sportsmen's shows. Kay’s flying saucer was added to his collection of attractions, but Shilling died of a heart attack in 1956. Its final fate is unknown.

The Flying Saucer Air Bus

A stunning color illustration of a flying saucer was published in October 1950, for Science and Mechanics magazine, Dec. 1950, painted by Arthur C. Bade. It was for the cover story, a three-page article written by George F. Miller, “Will ‘Flying Saucer’ Buses Lick Traffic Congestion?” The article began:

"Designed as a practical approach to some of tomorrow's transportation problems - especially through crowded cities and suburbs - the Air Bus, shown on the cover of this issue and the accompanying photos, incorporates a number of features regarded by aviation authorities as highly desirable. For commuting by air, it offers many advantages."

Miller briefly discussed the reality of UFOs:

“At first glance, today's skeptic would say, perhaps, “Oh that's just another wild dream resulting from too much talk about ‘flying saucers!’ That is untrue. Many authorities still do not admit the existence of flying saucers, even where good descriptions have been supplied by persons who have claimed to see the strange craft. But no one can deny that the reported shape of a flying saucer would be airworthy if properly designed. We believe the air bus design, on which patents are pending, would be flyable and qualified aeronautical engineers who have checked our calculations agree.”

The Air Bus was designed to be 65 feet in diameter and 10 1/2 feet high, and weigh from 80,000 to 110,000 pounds. It would fly passengers at 90 to 175 miles an hour, lifted by three counter-rotating pairs of 14-foot diameter rotors. Each rotor pair would be driven by a pancake-type 2,400 horsepower engine. 

Newspapers picked up on the story and widely printed a black and copy of Arthur C. Bade’s painting with a summary of Miller’s article. 

CITY "SAUCER" The "flying saucer" will come into its own one day as the solution to traffic congestion in most U.S. cities, thinks designer George F. Miller of Chicago. Above is Miller's conception of a saucer-shaped, 100 passenger air bus that would carry city commuters at 90 to 175 miles an hour. Miller's idea was presented in Science and Mechanics magazine.

We had no luck find a patent for the Air Bus, but George Francis Miller did file a copyright for his article.

The First Sports Model

In November 1950, U.S. newspapers carried an exciting photo of a dynamic disc-shaped object built by aviation engineer, Nick Stasinos.

“Non-Flying ‘Flying Saucer’ - This model ‘flying saucer’ was built by Nick Stasinos of Inglewood, Calif., on order for a New York museum. The craft, called the ‘Experimental NS-97,’ shows two main jet installations in the center section and eight turbo-jet ports on the outer revolving disc. Considered aerodynamically practical, the saucer is not scheduled for production now"

The unnamed customer was Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum in New York City. Like many others, the final fate of Stasino’s saucer is unknown.

Flying Further into the Fifties

In Frankfurt Germany, a propeller-driven flying saucer was designed by Walter Otto Galonska, as shown below in this 1951 news photo.

The Press and Sun-Bulletin, Jan. 2, 1951 - via Acme Telephoto

Engineers and artists had some high-flying expectation for man-made saucers, but the product never quite lived up to their dreams. Alexander Leydenfrost was an illustrator for pulp science fiction magazines before going to work for Life magazine. His work there rarely gave him the opportunity to revisit spaceships and such until Life magazine, May 31, 1954.

“The U.S. is seriously considering building a flying saucer… designed by a shy, 35-year-old English-born engineer named John C. M. Frost… It is the outgrowth of a saucerlike craft called ‘Project Y’ which Frost designed for his employers, A. V. Roe Canada Ltd.”

Life magazine, May 31, 1954

At Fort Hood, Texas, the U.S. Army's private Larry G. Anderson was building and launching his own flying saucers.

Chrysler’s Saucer Spaceship

Lovell Lawrence Jr, an assistant chief engineer at Chrysler Missiles Operations, publicized his concept for a nuclear-powered “flying saucer.” It was featured in an Associated Press story carried in The Bridgeport Post, Dec. 30, 1956. Lawrence was confident the spaceship could be built and said, “Space travel is inevitable, and the only question is when.” 

San Bernardino Sun,  March 1957

Check the links below for further information on Lawrence's concepts.

The Bridgeport Post, Dec. 30, 1956: …Space Ships May Make it Possible

Aerospace Projects Review Blog: The Chrysler Saucer

That concludes this look at plans and attempts to build man-made flying saucers. Be sure to check our past articles for more disc engineering attempts, and keep watching the skies.